Hello G, my self upgraded PS3 Allegheny bit the dust good this time. Same one that the smoke fet failed on last time.
She just got to a curve as she was pulling a large train for some time with the smoke on and she slammed to a stop. Totally dead. Tripped the breakers. Well I swear I heard the smoke unit making a noise but she was on the far side of the room when I tried adding power.
On the bench, she tried to run the smoke fan and nothing else. The smoke unit sounded bad, more like a buzz? This was maybe 2 months ago? Didn't trip the Z1000 on the bench. I never tested for amp draw. I was disgusted that it failed that session and put her on the shelf. It seems like the smoke draw is too much? Not a short that I ever found but again?
Today just connecting the tender only, it's dead. One section of the board seems to get warm to the touch. Bottom Left side of picture. I don't smell anything bad on this board but it's dead with no sound. I could test for motor control again but there was none last time I checked. Remember that this has the boiler board up in the engine.
I have another PS3 spare set-up but I'm not crazy enough to risk it. I have to find what took this board out first. I want to guess the PS3 wireless tether may have touched the rear most axle. There's a small clear plastic protector but at that moment of failure it had spun out of position. I don't see any signs of arcing there. Obviously I need to find the short or where the excess draw comes from. It's tuff when it's intermittent. I run with bricks so I only see things when they trip.
I wonder if there's no short if an older PS2 board set might be stronger? This engine has a large motor, it's an old first MTH version, and with the smoke on I think it pushes the board set?
I should have ran it with the Z4000 to see the actual draw but I can't now.
Smoke unit fan is 12.7 ohms runs on 3 volts
smoke unit resistors = 8.4 ohms cold
main drive motor spins good runs on 3 volts
no short found?
